Dec. 10, 1891.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



40"? 



The Currituck Shooting and Fishing Club was one of 

 the very first established. Its grounds included Deal's 

 Island and adjacent mai-shes, distant three miles only 

 from Knott's Island, and in 1874 afforded superlative 

 shooting at a very trifling cost. Andrew Powell, Esq., 

 wrote to the Foe.est ANr> Steeam in that year as follows: 



"White swans, geese, ducks, etc., congregate here in 

 such great numbers that there is scarcely a single mo- 

 ment, day or night, when they may not be heard at their 

 sport or seen on the wing, or in the waters. At one time, 

 and in one body, I saw a mass of ducks and geese, called 

 a 'raft,' covering not less than one hundred acres of the 

 surface of the water, and this within three miles of our 

 grounds. In no portion of this country that I have vis- 

 ited have I seen game so plentiful. From the time the 

 steamer enters the mouth of the Sound until she stops at 

 her destination, some thirty miles below, wildfowl are 

 never out of sight." 



Furthermore, he gives the following precious bit of in- 

 :formation, which sounds like buncombe to club members 

 nowadays, when each duck that is gathered costs about 

 ■$2o to shoot: 



"Our superintendent will open the club house on Oct. 

 15, and from that time until Feb. 15, wDl meet guests on 

 steamer, convey them to the club house, supply them 

 with decoys, boats, gunner, and board at the rate of .|;3.50 

 ;a day. Cost of the roimd trip $24." 



These rafts, mentioned by Mr. Powell, form during 

 isevere northeasters, and afterward break up into smaller 

 bodies and scatter throughout the surrounding creeks and 

 'Channel ways. Protracted cold weather always drives 

 the ducks further south. The water in the creeks is 

 seldom more than three feet deep, and averages about a 

 foot. In many places the growth of the celery is so dense 

 as to make it difficult to navigate a small boat. A glance 

 at the sketch map which accompanies this article will 

 show the lay of the land. There is the outer beach 

 with its wild drift and sand dunes, stretching along 

 the coast for 200 miles, its seeward line almost as straight 

 as a rule, and broken only by occasional inlets, which 

 shift, and open and close with annually recurring storms, 

 while its inner margin is quaintly irregular and deeply 

 indented with re-entering bays and points of land. These 

 points are favorite stands for gunners, because wildfowl, 

 like mariners, take their ranges therefrom, as they trade 

 between their feeding grounds. Inclosed between the 

 mainland and outer beach are the several bodies of water 

 designated as sounds, some portions of which are studded 

 with islands, many marshy and others covered with 

 cypress and pine. The inshore edge of the beach is also 

 agreeably diversified with trees of various kinds, of which 

 pine predominates, and the club houses, of which there 

 are so many, and of which we read so much, are usually 

 pleasantly situated on eligible sand knolls in the midst of 

 pretty groves, with an outlook over the marsh and water. 

 Some of the club territory will accommodate as many as 

 twenty gunners at a time, the property line stretching 

 three or four miles. I believe that every available foot is 

 occupied from Virginia Reach to Hatteras, so that with 

 the exception of individual private holdings there is no 

 place called public domain where the fowl shooter may 

 hunt ad libitum. Church's Island, owned by Nettie Mid- 

 get, a very nice person, is one of these private holdings. 

 It is four miles from Coin jock, which I mentioned in my 

 last letter as being on the regular route of the Newbern 

 boat. Besides duck, geese and swan shooting, the club 

 grounds generally afford bay bird and good upland shoot- 

 ing. 



Of course your readers all know what club life is. Its 

 incidents are monotonously similar, indoors and out, and 

 it seems to me that a man must be an insatiable ogre who 

 can put in an uninterrupted fortnight with incessant 

 shooting. Natural diversity and an interest in the study 

 of natural objects could alone redeem the time for me. 

 Many of your correspondents, however, write of sport in 

 a most captivating way, with which I might be able to 

 sympathize more keenly were it not fated that I must be 

 perpetually on the wing, with rod and gun in hand. As 

 it is, my taste for ripe canvasback is in no wise impaired 

 when it comes to the table; for, by my halidomel it is a 

 goodly bird, comely to lookupon and luscious to the taste, 

 when, by the grace of the cook, it is not spoiled in the 

 kitchen, but rare done to that degree that the juice fol- 

 lows the knife. As served, so carved, secundum artem — 

 each plump breast first gashed lengthwise and basted with 

 the juice of a lemon squeezed from its golden rind, and 

 seasoned with cayenne pepper and salt; and when this 

 sauce piqvantc imbues the whole, slice two longitudinal 

 strips for the ladies, and place the wings, each with its 

 full proportion of breast, upon the plates of the swains 

 expectant. Aushi, en j)assa.nt, im verre du Chambertin. 



Would you then have me re-state the often-described 

 devices of batteries, sinks, blinds and svvivel guns, and 

 the best approved methods of setting out decoys, off 

 shore or on, when I am in such high estate with cook 

 and carver: or shall I again recount for callow youth the 

 vicissitudes of bleak December days when the sleet drives 

 into the blinds and all the caloric in the heated gun bar- 

 rels cannot suflHce to warm the benumbed fingers? These 

 things become stale and tiresome in the recital. When 

 I get down to Stumpy Point, perhaps, and take pot luck 

 with the beach men who never shave nor have seen a 

 looking glass, I may be able to deal somewhat in novel- 

 ties. Me.anwhile, I will revert once more to my entranc- 

 ing trip down the Albemarle Canal with good Captain 

 Southgate, of the steamer Newbern, and his attentive 

 satellites in the cabin and i)antry. Captain Southgate is 

 his own steward and we live high on the products of the 

 country. I tell you it is a rare chance when one falls on 

 lines where the captain is a good liver and does his own 

 marketing. Besides, the captain is genial. He is just 

 old enough to be juicy and ripe. I have heard that he 

 lacks five years of sixty. His officers are intelligent 

 gentlemeii and good navigators. Passengers who are 

 strangers to each other when they come aboard get to be 

 a family party while the day is still young. They foilow 

 the sinuous windings of the Elizabeth and North Land- 

 ing rivers without once getting into a personal snarl, 

 and they traverse the direct line of the connecting canal 

 in a straightforward and proper manner, according to 

 Scripture. The canal, of course, is wide enough and 

 deep enough for any craft which navigates the sounds. 

 Steamboats and sailing vessels often pass each other. 

 Sometimes there are long strings of oyster schooners 

 and lumber vessels which tail out in the wake of labor- 

 ing tugs. Sometimes we pass great rafts of logs, four- 

 teen sticks abreast and a quarter of a mile long, that 

 almost choke the passage. Occasionally there is a bunch 

 of tugs, pile-drivers, lighters and scows all jammed up 

 together. A string of telegraph poles extends the whole 

 length, with numbers on each pole, so that a break or an 

 accident can be located by wire within two rods of 

 the exact locality of its occurrence. Turnpike and 

 railroad bridges swing open at intervals. From the 

 promenade deck one can look over the tops of the 

 canal banks, across the marginal cane brakes, into 



the dense cypress swamp whibh lines both sides. 

 The embankments are all of white sand, which has 

 been thrown out of the bed of the canal. All the 

 swamp is underlaid by sand. Some people's idea of a 

 swamp is, that it is a morass or slough grown up to 

 grass and full of bogs. A N^orth Carolina or Virginia 

 swamp is one of the most beautiful forests in the world. 

 Sweet gums and cypress crowned with mistletoe, long- 

 leaved pines, live oaks hung with vines, stately magnolias 

 and bright- leaved myrtle, holly brilliant with red berries, 

 yellow jasmines and sweet briers climbing all over the 

 foliage in spring, purple asters and daisies blooming 

 against the sides of the banks, and washed by the swirl of 

 the big waves which the boat piles up in passing. Con- 

 siderable areas of the swamp are wet, but large portions 

 are cultivated. Farmhouses occur at intervals, with here 

 and there a sawmill, a log landing or a country store. 

 Occasionally one sees new buildings going up, indicating 

 business life. There are few birds and very little game 

 to be seen— a few crows and buzzards, an eagle, and 

 once in a while a deer. One day we saw a veritable 

 rabbit swimming across the canal, with his long, big ears 

 set like sails. Straight ahead there is a lovely vista, with 

 the pines and vines reflected in the water. IPongo Ferry 

 is an historic place, associated with the Revolution. So 

 is North Landmg and Crow Island. Commodore Vander- 

 bilt cornraenced business here by trading sweet potatoes 

 andredbirds at North Landing; but Currituck Inlet after- 

 ward closed up so that his vessels couldn't get in, and eo 

 he had to abandon trading, and started in as a deck hand 

 on a steamboat. Capt. Marshall Parks, supervising in- 

 spector of steam vessels in this district, told me this. 



The transition from the close canal and the mural 

 foliage to the wide expanse of the open sound is agree- 

 able. The way across Albemarle is lighted at night by 

 10 plug lights, each composed of three iron tubes 16ft. in 

 length, set up on piles in mid water, and filled with 

 petroleum gas once a fortnight. So the steamer threads 

 its watery way by gas-lamps at night, which serve as 

 bases for sailing courses as well as beacons. Government 

 owns and operates the lights, makes the gas on a little 

 shell mound in the sound, and fills the receivers twice a 

 mouth. It is all very unique and interesting. 



Chajiles Hallo ck. 



OFF TO THE WOODS. 



Editor ForeM and Stream: 



I usually start in early in September after several frosts, 

 but this season the weather held warm as mid-summer 

 all the month, and as it drew toward its close I could wait 

 no longer. There was one advantage since the fords were 

 low, and the swamps, usually miry, were comparatively 

 dry. It is a day's travel from the nearest point of sup- 

 plies to the terminus of the highway at the entrance of 

 the trail, an old disused toll road. At the appointed time 

 my teamster, with a farm wagon and a heavy pair of 

 horses used to the woods, loaded up and made the last 

 clearing in time to make camp, have early supper and 

 shift the load on to a jumper, over which was put a can- 

 vas cover to protect from possible rain. 



Perhaps it will be of interest to learn what I took in 

 for supplies for the winter. Following are the principal 

 items: Pork, codfish, smoked ham, beans, flour, potatoes, 

 and a variety of vegetables, sugar, molasses, tea, coffee, 

 dried apples, crackers, vinegar and other condiments and 

 spices; butter, lard, Eoyal baking powder, together with 

 parafine candles, kerosene, etc., etc. These will be sup- 

 plemented later with wild meat, that is if I have usual 

 luck. The principal game is caribou, and it won't take 

 much of it to supply camp, as I don't hanker after it; 

 an occasional meal is enough, and it suits best in a stew 

 with onions and potatoes. 



We got away on the trail at break of day and the load, 

 not heavy on wheels, was all the team could draw, and as 

 the sun came up, making it almost unbearable for man 

 and beast, frequent stops were necessary. Rocks, roots, 

 stumps and gullies made travel at best but slowly. 

 Then there were blowdowns to cut out or a new road 

 cut around them. It would appear wonderful to an out- 

 sider the way the team would pick their way in bad 

 places, only horses used to the woods could get along 

 safely. Many pole bridges and corduroys had got dis- 

 placed by spring freshets, and unless the gaps were of 

 more than a step in width no replacing was necessary, 

 as the horses would carefully pick their way. The driver 

 walked behind the load, seldom touching the reins. 

 Once on a steep sidehill the load overturned, but was 

 soon righted and no damage, as the load was packed and 

 corded to meet such mishaps. We stopped for dinner at 

 a cold spring brook, unharnessing the horses, which were 

 reeking with sweat. As the team needed a long rest I 

 started ahead to swamp out, for the worst of the road 

 was from now on, getting to camp at 4 o'clock with three 

 partridges that I had snipped on the way and soon had 

 doing in the pot for our supper. Just about sundown 

 the team came in. After supper the supplies were put 

 under the roof of the dingle and a look was taken near 

 by for trees, for the next forenoon was to be put in in 

 cutting and hauling logs into the campyard for my win- 

 ter supply. After dark there were a tew games of high- 

 low-jack, a final smoke and an early turn in. 



Daylight found us astir, and the teamster's ax was 

 laying low the giant birches until breakfast. Soon as 

 the camp was put to rights I joined him and by 11 

 o'clock 9 big trees were in the roomy campyard. Then a 

 dinner of fried pork, fried onions and boiled potatoes, 

 with biscuit and tea, and we parted, him for the clearing, 

 myself to commence the task of reducing the big trees to 

 stove wood. HUNTEE. 

 Maine. 



It is 7im-d -work to select an acceptable Ghristmas present, 

 sometMng that will give real pleasure. For the sportsman 

 there is nothing more pleasing than a hook which deals with his 

 ftt'coiHie topic. Me enjoys its perusal, and the satisfaction it gives 

 Mm is a lasting one. Forest and Stream's free illustrated 

 catalogue gives the intending purchaser a wide range of selec- 

 tion and offers many suggestions which at this season of the 

 year are very timely. 



TRULY ODD IF ODDLY TRUE. 



A party of young women living in Fulton, Mo., arranged a coon 

 hunt to which no men were invited. They started out with four 

 dogs, two suns and two axes, and immediately lost themselves 

 in the woods, where they spent the night. When found the next 

 morninuthey werecrylng,iaarowonalog» and had no coone. 

 "If&c Yorls Evenmu Posx. 



